Calgary Flames' Matthew Tkachuk, centre, celebrates his goal with Sam Bennett, left, and Mikael Backlund during the second period against the Vegas Golden Knights in Calgary, Monday, Nov. 19, 2018.Jeff McIntosh / THE CANADIAN PRESS

The Calgary Flames have made an art of the comeback victory, battling from behind six times this National Hockey League season.

On Monday night, however, they got to work early. And they definitely didn’t leave things until the third period to get the job done.

Pumping in five goals during the first 20 minutes and another two in the second frame, the Flames took it to the Vegas Golden Knights 7-2 to capture their second-straight victory.

It almost made you feel sorry for starting netminder Malcolm Subban whose shoulders slumped immediately after Matthew Tkachuk picked the top corner just 24 seconds into the middle frame as the entire building wondered why Golden Knights head coach Gerard Gallant wasn’t ending the misery.

Almost . . .

Because, if you’ll remember, the Flames were in this position nearly a month ago when they were hanging their heads after a 9-1 loss on home ice on Oct. 25. The lopsided result raised questions about many things including their play on home ice and goaltending.

Since that date, which will clearly be looked at as one of the major turning points in the Flames 2018-19 NHL campaign, they are 7-3-1. At home, they’re 4-1-1 and 6-3-1 at the Saddledome overall this season.

“There was no secret — we got our you-know-what kicked that night,” said Tkachuk. “We never want to have that feeling again. We want to be a tough team to beat at home and we want teams, when they come into (the Saddledome), to be like: ‘Ugh. Calgary is not fun to come in and play.’ We want that to be a staple for our group.”

As for their goaltending, David Rittich looked solid again in facing 22 shots.

He improved to 7-1-0 while the Flames, overall, are 12-8-1 and moved into first in the Pacific Division. Only Nick Holden and Max Pacioretty scored on Rittich on Monday and both came in the third period. The latter was a power-play goal.

In the second period, Rittich made his 10th stop of the night on a short-handed breakaway on Reilly Smith which caused the Saddledome to erupt into cheers.

“The game is kind of like that, if you’re up a lot of goals, you feel so free and you can give a lot of chances,” Rittich said. “But we didn’t give up too many chances and played still well. Sometimes we gave up little bit.”

The Golden Knights very much looked like a team that played 24 hours earlier, a 6-3 win over the Edmonton Oilers, and didn’t give Subban much run support. In the end, the Calgary crew peppered him with 32 shots.

Meanwhile, the Flames’ top line padded its stats with some incredible work in the offensive zone.

In the opening frame alone, Sean Monahan scored twice and had an assist while Johnny Gaudreau had a goal and three assists. Elias Lindholm continued to prove his impact on the trio and showed tremendous patience with the puck as he held onto it and waited until his linemates set up in the offensive zone, nabbing an assist on Gaudreau’s marker. TJ Brodie also scored in the first period.

“You want to come out with a good start at home,” Monahan said. “You want to maintain that throughout the game and want to dictate the game — I think we did that (Monday).”

Tkachuk, who opened the scoring 2:36 into the first period on a power play, had a four-point night (two goals and two assists) while Sam Bennett snapped a 13-game goal scoring drought for his third of the year on a second-period man-advantage.

“The first period was awesome, we were scoring goals left and right,” Tkachuk said. “The game can get a little tricky there, in the second and third period. They’re not the most fun at that point, but I thought for the most part, we played awesome. We capitalized on our chances, and it set us up for the rest of the game.”

Flames head coach Bill Peters called the five-goal lead after the first period a “maturity test.”

“You want to have good habits, and I thought we came out for the second period and had a good start,” Peters said. “Obviously the Tkachuk goal was on the first goal, and we had a power play and capitalized on that. The guys did a good job of staying through it through 40, for sure. It gets a little tougher as you go, but that’s human nature . . . We’ve talked about our third periods, they’ve been good, but we’d like to be good for 60. And our start here (Monday) was good.

“Hopefully it’s something we can build on.

The Flames wrap up a four-game homestand on Wednesday against the Winnipeg Jets (8 p.m., Sportsnet West/Sportsnet 960 The Fan).

NEAL ‘RESPECTS’ OL’ MATES

James Neal was lined up at centre ice when the puck was dropped on Monday, a nice touch by Calgary Flames head coach Bill Peters to start the 31-year-old winger against his former team.

Neal was part of last year’s Cinderella story which saw the Vegas Golden Knights defy all odds and battle all the way to the Stanley Cup final.

In the off-season, he inked a five-year deal worth US$5.75-million per year with the Flames — his fifth NHL team. But no matter how many times you do it, playing against your old squad is meaningful.

“It’s always fun going up your old teammates,” Neal said. “Last year was a great year. A ton of fun. A lot of respect for those guys over there. But when you go up against your old team, you always want to beat them and have a great game.”

Peters understands.

“There’s a little bit more to it, obviously,” said the coach. “Nealer is coming off a real strong game, his last two games … He had five shots (against the Montreal Canadiens) and six the other night (against the Edmonton Oilers). I thought he was really good on that line he played with in the third (with Derek Ryan and Michael Frolik) . . . they have a chance to be dangerous and can tilt it in our favour offensively.”

Against the Golden Knights, he logged 15:30 of icetime and had two shots on net.

Flames goalie David Rittich is congratulated by Mike Smith at the end of the game.Darren Makowichuk/Postmedia

RITTICH BACK IN NET

David Rittich started his second straight game in net Monday, leading many to believe that the Flames will continue this trend for the foreseeable future.

It’s simple — continue to play well, and you’ll keep playing.

“It’s a situation that’s dictated by the schedule and the quality of play,” Peters explained. “We’ll take it one game at at time and go from there . . . ”

A week ago, the Flames were operating with Mike Smith as their No. 1 netminder and working to get his confidence boosted. But Smith’s performance in a 3-2 loss to Montreal on Thursday changed things, shifting the attention to Rittich.

“I like how efficient he is, how smooth he is,” Peters said. “He’s real good laterally. Good edge control. He’s a good skater in there and playing with lots of confidence right now.”

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